


Faded Hearts

by InNeedOfInspiration



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 17:13:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5833840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InNeedOfInspiration/pseuds/InNeedOfInspiration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where one's heart glows when they find their soulmate</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faded Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt I received. It's angsty but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Steve's heart had glowed once a long time ago, a moment he could still play in his head over and over again with all the details. It was the day he had been introduced to Peggy.

As soon as she had stepped in before his regiment, he had felt it, this blissful warmth gently wrapping itself around his heart. And then soon the glow had shown over his chest. An irrational panic had taken over him and he clutched his rifle tight against the side of his chest to hide it from his other comrades, and mostly, from her.

Peggy hadn't noticed anything, but worse than that, she hadn't felt anything. Steve had stared straight at her chest, squeezing his rifle with a pounding heart, hoping to catch the glimpse of a shimmer radiating over. But Peggy's chest remained unchanged and her straight face and sharp look confirmed she hadn't felt an ounce of this blooming glow. Steve had bit his bottom lip; he had heard of it happening more often than anyone would think, but he had never thought he'd be one to experience it. As hard as it was to admit it, Peggy Carter was his soulmate but he wasn't hers.

She had liked him though, learned to love him too with time. She grew feelings for him and his pure heart and gentle nature. And in a way, it was enough to content himself with. It _should_ have been enough for him, but so many questions remained unanswered. So many what ifs. What if she eventually fell out of love with him? What if she met her soulmate? What if he met the girl whose heart would glow when she'd see him? Would he love her just as much as he loved Peggy, though?

Fate tore them apart sooner than he had thought when he crashed the plane into the ice. When he woke up seventy years later, it seemed like things had fallen back into their right place. Of course he was never meant to be Peggy's soulmate and it made sense why her heart hadn't glowed, but he couldn't help to think he had just lost the woman of his life.

He met the second woman of his life a couple of weeks later. Natasha Romanoff. She wasn't the woman of his life in the sense anyone would hear it, she was the woman who walked in his everyday life and took a place in it.

They became teammates and colleagues and she spent her days fighting by his side, following his orders, having his back. Then, they became friends and she started to spend her evenings in his company, catching up on the Hollywood movies in his apartment, chatting about a date to find him. Until that one time during a cover mission. He couldn't say how it happened, it just did – like one thing leading to another –, they kissed, first blandly, mechanically, then as the shadow of a comfort started to grow within, more ardently and demandingly. They had sex that night, finding a shelter in each other's arms, a temporary rampart to their respective solitudes. That's how they became lovers and Natasha spent most of her nights in his arms.

They never really discussed the subject, though. No questions about their status or their future. They sufficed each other this way. Like a blanket to shield oneself from the cold; was it warm? was it soft? was it good? They didn't know; they were too busy surviving the storm to muse over it. Who knew how long it would even last. Natasha was not one to stick around; she hadn't had to say it for him to know it for a fact. But it worked that way for both. Their nights were less lonely, their existences more bearable.

The team was fighting what was very likely to be their last battle on the flying city of Sokovia when Natasha came to stand by his side.

'I'm not leaving anyone on this city,' he answered to the comment she had just made.

'I never said leaving,' she asked with a determined voice and a cocked eyebrow. He turned to look at her, surprised to hear her talk about staying.

She smiled slightly at him, seeming to be fully in peace with her decision for the first time. 'And where else would I get a view like this?'

And he found peace in this fate as well, knowing he was going to die –for real this time, by her side.

And there he felt it again for the second time in his life, that thing he had stopped to believe he would ever feel again. The hotness folded around his heart, warmer, more vivid and indubitable than seventy-five years ago. The glow burst through his skin to the outside in a painless blast.

An overwhelming feeling of bliss took over as he turned to look at Natasha, only to find her gently pressing her palm against the glow on her chest. The expression on her face seemed to imply she was having it for the first time. He could recognize it anywhere. He had the same one in 1942.

The other Avengers, standing not so far away from their spot, stared and gasped in shock.

'Holy cow!' Tony was the first to comment. 'Did I miss an episode?'

Tony turned to Thor, expecting the semi-god to provide a plausible explanation. Thor answered with a shrug and a clueless expression on his face.

Natasha and Steve looked at each other and smiled.

When had they fallen in love? They didn't know.

When had they stopped having sex and started making love? None of them could probably pinpoint the moment.

When had they moved from being a need for each other to being a yearning? They couldn't tell.

But it had happened, somewhere along the road, without them noticing the change. All they were sure of was that their hearts had finally glowed when they had put their torments at rest and opened themselves back to the world, only to realize they had been each other's world all along.

And just like that the pieces fell into their right places, the second woman of his life turned out to be his soulmate just as much as he was hers.

'Great timing, guys,' Clint chimed in with a sarcastic tone.

'We better resume fighting Ultron,' Thor told everyone.

'We probably should, although I must admit I'm torn right now,' Tony replied. 'How about we all hold that thought for after we save the world?'

The Hulk, Clint and Thor all pouted at once.

'Sounds good to me,' Barton said.

Tony gave the loving birds a disapproving and judging shake of head (for choosing the worst timing possible, that is) and flew away.

The glow faded out slowly but not the feeling it sparked: the realization that they would never have to worry again about finding a blanket against the cold storm. They had found a home.

 


End file.
